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O that my head were a spring of water,

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

so that I might weep day and night

for the slain of my poor people!

O that I had in the desert

a traveler’s lodging place,

that I might leave my people

and go away from them!

For they are all adulterers,

a band of traitors.

They bend their tongues like bows;

they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth;

for they proceed from evil to evil,

and they do not know me, says the L ord.

Beware of your neighbors,

and put no trust in any of your kin;

for all your kin are supplanters,

and every neighbor goes around like a slanderer.

They all deceive their neighbors,

and no one speaks the truth;

they have taught their tongues to speak lies;

they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.

Oppression upon oppression, deceit upon deceit!

They refuse to know me, says the L ord.

Therefore thus says the L ord of hosts:

I will now refine and test them,

for what else can I do with my sinful people?

Their tongue is a deadly arrow;

it speaks deceit through the mouth.

They all speak friendly words to their neighbors,

but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush.

Shall I not punish them for these things? says the L ord;

and shall I not bring retribution

on a nation such as this?

Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,

and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,

because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,

and the lowing of cattle is not heard;

both the birds of the air and the animals

have fled and are gone.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,

a lair of jackals;

and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation,

without inhabitant.

¹² Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the L ord spoken, so that they may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? ¹³And the L ord says: Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accordance with it, ¹⁴but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them. ¹⁵Therefore thus says the L ord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am feeding this people with wormwood, and giving them poisonous water to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

The People Mourn in Judgment

Thus says the L ord of hosts:

Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;

send for the skilled women to come;

let them quickly raise a dirge over us,

so that our eyes may run down with tears,

and our eyelids flow with water.

For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:

“How we are ruined!

We are utterly shamed,

because we have left the land,

because they have cast down our dwellings.”

Hear, O women, the word of the L ord,

and let your ears receive the word of his mouth;

teach to your daughters a dirge,

and each to her neighbor a lament.

“Death has come up into our windows,

it has entered our palaces,

to cut off the children from the streets

and the young men from the squares.”

Speak! Thus says the L ord:

“Human corpses shall fall

like dung upon the open field,

like sheaves behind the reaper,

and no one shall gather them.”

²³ Thus says the L ord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; ²⁴but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the L ord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the L ord.

²⁵ The days are surely coming, says the L ord, when I will attend to all those who are circumcised only in the foreskin: ²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

He then adds, And they have walked after the hardiness, or obstinacy, or imaginations, of their own heart ²⁴⁶²⁴⁶ See Note on Jeremiah 3:17, 18. He opposes the imaginations, or hardness of the heart, to the voice of God, as we find in other places, where contrary things are stilted, that is, what men’s minds devise, and what God shews by his word to be right; for there is no less contrariety between the rule of right living and the imaginations of men, than there is between fire and water. Let us therefore know, that our life cannot be rightly formed except we renounce our own imaginations, and simply obey the voice of God: for as soon as we yield the least to our own imaginations, we necessarily turn aside from the right way, which God has made known to us in his word. This contrast, then, between the law of God and the imaginations or the obduracy of men ought to be carefully noticed.

He then more clearly explains how they had sinned, and after Baalim ²⁴⁷²⁴⁷     It is supposed that the Israelites made a difference between this word and God: they allowed but one God, but introduced Baalim, or inferior gods, and worshipped them. They tried to evade the charge of idolatry, by alleging that Baalim were mediators. But no excuse of this kind was admitted, as God everywhere imputed idolatry to them. Notwithstanding this example, and the distinct declaration of Scripture, that there is but one God and one Mediator, (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6; 1 Timothy 2:5,) the error, the awful error of praying to saints, etc., as mediators, has prevailed in the Christian Church! — Ed. The Prophet here adds nothing new; but by specifying one thing he shews how the Jews followed their own imaginations, by giving themselves up to profane superstitions. What indeed must happen to men, when they forsake God, and allow themselves to follow their own thoughts? what but error and superstition, yea, the abyss of all errors? In short, the Prophet in this clause intended to cut off every occasion for subterfuges; for the Jews, like hypocrites, who sophistically deal with God, might have made this evasion, and said, “Why dost thou object to us our imaginations? what are these imaginations?” Baalim, he says, “Ye have devised idols far yourselves in addition to the only true God; it is hence quite evident, that having forsaken God’s word, ye have followed your own imaginations.” He adds to Baalim, as their fathers have taught them: the relative אשר, asher, is to be taken for כ caph, as. ²⁴⁸²⁴⁸     It makes no difference as to the meaning, but the true construction of this clause is as follows, —
   Which their fathers have taught them.
   The verb “to teach,” in Hebrew as well as in some other languages, admits of two objective cases. — Ed. I shall speak of this clause tomorrow.

²⁴⁶ See Note on Jeremiah 3:17, 18.

²⁴⁷ It is supposed that the Israelites made a difference between this word and God: they allowed but one God, but introduced Baalim, or inferior gods, and worshipped them. They tried to evade the charge of idolatry, by alleging that Baalim were mediators. But no excuse of this kind was admitted, as God everywhere imputed idolatry to them. Notwithstanding this example, and the distinct declaration of Scripture, that there is but one God and one Mediator, (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6; 1 Timothy 2:5,) the error, the awful error of praying to saints, etc., as mediators, has prevailed in the Christian Church! — Ed.

²⁴⁸ It makes no difference as to the meaning, but the true construction of this clause is as follows, — Which their fathers have taught them. The verb “to teach,” in Hebrew as well as in some other languages, admits of two objective cases. — Ed.